Thanks for the nice notes fellas.

Blast:

I do not think I was in any real danger as the ice is about 10 inches thick and I could see the lights of town and on the highway. I did not consider spending the night on the ice when the highway was so close (what does DV stand for).

Talking about communications I had some others with me that I did not need. A Globalstar Sat. phone that is really just dead weight because it has not worked properly in months and an old PLB that should work in a real emergency but I have never used it. I also had a 2 way radio that I did use, along with the cell phone (a Sanyo 7050).

I was in a rush to get going today (it was my first day snowmobiling this season) so I did not put the time into selecting my equipment that I usually do and had a lot of duplication. I hate to admit it but I had 5 survival kits with me in different locations (Altoids kit on belt, small kit in floater coat pocket, Medium kit in daypack, large kit in Rubbermaid storage bin on snowmobile rack and small kit under seat of snowmobile)! I also had 3 - 1st Aid Kits!

When I got home my son would not believe how much the stuff weighed so I loaded up again and jumped on the bathroom scales, 98 lbs, and I left about another 50 lbs on the machine. I go alone to many remote areas and the snowmobile is large so this equipment really rides for free, this is the first time I have ever tried to carry any amount of it.

I had the same pull sled idea you had as I was looking at the pile of gear I was going to try and carry, I remembered Les Stroud using one in the Temagami Air Crash Survivorman show. Tomorrow I will take a plastic sled (we call them Crazy Carpets) with me because if the track of the snowmobile is seized we will need to lash it underneath to make it slide. I remember seeing in the Cabelas catalog a thick plastic sheet with rope tie points along the edges that was made to drag out deer, it would have worked great.

I have been very deficient in posting the kits I use while enjoying the ones you folks post. I am a bit of a techno dinosaur and do not have a digital camera but my son got one for Christmas so maybe he can help me post some picture and lists.

The metal mesh locking bag would have worked well. I wish the underseat compartment of the snowmobile locked but it does not.

And yes, my wife is a keeper, we have been married for 20 years this spring.

Mike